The dark side of Great Reset

What is preparing for our damage? Is there really a totalitarian plan of digital tyranny over men? The link between the so called Fourth Industrial Revolution and what Klaus Schwab defines as “the return of big government” together constitute a serious risk of totalitarian drift. Let’s see why the dark side of the big reset is so scary.

What is meant by the Fourth Industrial Revolution? The answer to this question refers to a very complex problem, which requires considerable technical skills. In general we can understand what the substance is, above all we can do it by marking the difference between the third and fourth industrial revolution, between simple computerization and this radical further technological change which is precisely defined as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the real dark side of the great reset. Ilaria Bifarini writes:

Although pleonastic, it is good to point out that Artificial Intelligence is not synonymous with automation. Automation is software that follows pre-programmed rules with a single purpose: to allow machines to perform repetitive and monotonous tasks, with the aim of simplifying the end-user experience. Automated systems are practically everywhere nowadays. Artificial intelligence, on the other hand, is not only capable of doing what has been described so far, but is designed to simulate human thought; a machine powered with artificial intelligence, just like the human brain, creates models and categories to organize the surrounding world and to perform known actions as it grows and improves with experience

Given this basic clarification, we must continue further in understanding what is meant by big government and the term “governance”. Governance and big government, in the idea of Klaus Schwab, spokesman for the globalist elites, must not be thought only on a national scale, but above all on a planetary scale. Hence the definition of “globalist elite” is therefore legitimized; and precisely for this reason it is not enough to put “sovereignism” alone as a metric of thought, precisely because big government acts on a global level, with very important repercussions on the nation states, which must only become the armed arm of this system. The Big Government sets the rules and the nations apply them, in a perfect relationship between the issuing body and the mere executor.

Leading into the dark side: the globalization trilemma

Certainly the so-called sovereignty, in the more traditional meaning of nationalism, represents a danger for this design, Schwab in fact denounces it as it is, presenting a very significant theoretical model: the so-called trilemma of globalization, formulated in 2010 by an economist from Harvard Dani Rodrik. Klaus Schwab argues that the three notions of economic globalization, political democracy and nation/nation-state are mutually irreconcilable. In this sense, it is based on the logic according to which none of these three things can coexist, and that it is necessary to choose two of them, throwing away the third.

Following this trilemma, democracy and national sovereignty are compatible only if globalization is included in it. Conversely, if national state and globalization flourish, democracy becomes impracticable. And finally, expanding democracy and globalization, there is no longer a place for the nation state.

This is precisely the point of fall preferred by the elite of which Klaus Schwab has become the spokesman. Globalization, according to these theorists, could guarantee democracy only if national states give up very significant shares of sovereignty. This globalization that gives us democracy and these global powers that give us democracy, should really be permeated by a great philanthropic spirit, or come directly from the world of fairy tales; because it would seem instead that the purpose of this trilemma is exactly and only to annul the nation state precisely as humanity knows it. The trilemma is therefore extremely significant, both in its “true” and “false” parts.

Moreover, it is Klaus Schwab himself who does not present all this as a “fairy tale”, inserting the need to proceed with a restructuring.

For this man, certainly these are negative phenomena, those that will lead to a certain deglobalization, but there is absolutely no alternative; there is no way for him to restore the status quo ante, defined by Schwab as “hyper globalization”, that is the one known until 2019. For Schwab this type of historical globalization is no longer defensible as it has lost all its political capital and social. On the other hand, it would be hastily to withdraw completely from globalization because the consequences, Schwab declares, would be catastrophic, corroborating everything from the usual prophecies: trade wars, national economies that would suffer serious damage, dangerous social unrest, resurgence of nationalisms on an ethnic basis, if not even tribal…

Global governance

Schwab’s conclusion, which best brings us closer to the dark side of the matter, is that there is a need to redefine globalization, in what he calls “global governance”. What is it about? It is a question of the cooperation process between transnational actors who respond to global problems; as a corollary to this definition it is obvious that global governance requires the cooperation of national governments. We detect a clear short-circuit: Schwab declares the Nation State necessary, finalizing everything to the suicide of the same, transmission belts of the decisions taken by the supranational and global powers. The enemies, needless to say, of this scenario are nationalism and isolationism. Schwab does not mention it but we keep in mind that The Great Reset book book was published in July 2020, still under the presidency of Donald Trump; isolationism is a clear reference to the approach of this President. In all this, the pandemic laboratory has been an excellent ground for acceleration, also becoming a paradigmatic case as a failure of a “global governance”; for Schwab it is precisely from this failure that we should learn. In this Schwab absolves the WHO, the highest global authority in the health sector, asserting that the cause of the failure are the nation states, which have not given up sufficient shares of sovereignty, responsible in other words (surreptitiously declared) it is the democratic conditioning that has acted to a greater or lesser extent, within the nation states, jurisdictional and constitutional ties… What Schwab interprets as a failure has been particularly sensitive where such ties have been stronger. In short, if the whole world had behaved like China, or like Draghi Mario‘s or Conte Giuseppe‘s Italy, it is clear that this governance would have been a great success. In all this there is certainly no lack of stakeholders hospitality, such as for example as we see here in the press room of one of the largest credit institutions in the world, Santander.

Pandemic and ecologist approach, arm in arm

For Schwab, among the global problems that require global governance, there is precisely the environmental problem. It fears that the concentration of attention on the coronavirus could overshadow the environmental problem, leading to disastrous consequences; therefore we should understand, according to his point of view, that in reality there is a close correlation between the pandemic problem and the environmental problem. These may appear to be second or third cousins, while in reality they are much more interconnected than one might imagine. Thinking in terms of global risk, according to Klaus Schwab’s catastrophic narrative, climate change can be coupled precisely to the pandemic problem and the collapse of the ecosystem, both being the two fundamental environmental risks. By developing this mix, Schwab articulates the risk of systemic collapse caused by climate change between the present and the future. For this protagonist, while in terms of personal health, a majority of citizens are willing to accept the need for the imposition of coercive measures, these same citizens will resist much more than coercive policies in the case of environmental issues; regarding this problem, the evidence can be doubted by the citizens themselves. How should we proceed to get these citizens to accept the policies of coercion, also on an environmental level? Simple: proceed in parallel with the lockdown policies, enriching the reasons for these measures under the ecological excuse.

One-way structural changes and hypnotic dictations

But it does not end here because for Klaus Schwab more is needed, a combination of two factors is necessary: a radical and more systemic change in the way we produce the energy we need, and structural changes in our consumption behaviors. How to obtain these structural changes in employment, consumption and investment in the various sectors? The idea that some social scientists have is called “behavioral contagion”, that is, the way in which attitudes, habits, ideas and behaviors spread in the population. This, enthusiastically says Schwab, can work in a magical way: this behavioral contagion is typical of Erich Fromm’s automaton conformism, or what Markuse called “hypnotic dictations”. All of this is interpreted by Schwab as something magical; unfortunately it would not seem to be just a gentle force of persuasion, but a real technocratic totalitarianism, becoming clear by scrolling through his book, when he refers to the “technological reset” of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, in reference to his 2015 paper. Technological progress has moved very fast, and this progress will gradually accelerate even faster. The coronavirus element was only the catalyst for digital transformation, says the author in his 2020 book, The great reset, and if someone previously mentioned digital acceleration without fully understanding it, now you can finally understand everyone, even for through lockdowns, what this transformation is.

Safer, cheaper, greener: the dark side served on a gold plate

The three keywords used by Schwab with great satisfaction, indicate a whole series of behaviors that in reality must be maintained even after the epidemic circumstance. Online meeting platforms instead of international conference flights or family gatherings: why travel long distances instead of connecting comfortably and ecologically remotely? The tireless leader of the great reset continues: the lockdown has shown us how robots and AI become a natural alternative when human work is no longer available. We add, not only in the case of a lockdown, but also when you want to do without human work, eg. when the company has the convenience of producing without human labor. In this context, it is clear that we are far beyond automation and we do not believe it is necessary to add anything else. The cost on employment of the Third Industrial Revolution is incomparable to that of the Fourth Revolution.

The drawback of tracking

Voluntary tracking platforms involve a problem: they safeguard the privacy of their users but are only effective when the membership level is high enough. What does this mean? When citizens are not willing to give their personal data to government agencies (more or less private) in charge of monitoring the system, then there is a need for unwanted tracking apps to take over. In this sense, there are no secrets: these tracking systems could become definitive changes, a bit like what happened for the post-911: certain control systems have remained permanently and even today allow targeted and very fast checks to be carried out on all travelers. Now, Klaus Shwab writes, there is a growing number of analysts, policy makers, security specialists, etc. who fear that the same phenomenon may occur even now, for all those technological solutions implemented in order to contain the pandemic event. These specialists envision a dystopian world before us; “The risk of dystopia” is the paragraph placed after these statements in the work of Klaus Schwab.

You are doomed: the risk of dystopia

Yuval Noah Harari, is an Israeli intellectual disciple of Klaus Schwab and his main mentor as well as the mind of the Great Reset and above all of Transhumanism. Harari has written real best sellers, selling millions and millions of copies, we mention for example. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Harvill Secker, 2014), Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2016) as well as the most recent 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (London: Jonathan Cape, 2018). Klaus Schwab argues that Harari is one of those characters very concerned about this dystopian scenario, essentially citing:

Technological surveillance is developing so fast that what might have resembled science fiction a decade ago is now old news, history. We are in a thought experiment in which we can consider a hypothetical government that asks every citizen to wear a biometric bracelet that can monitor body temperature, heart rate and heart rate 24 hours a day. The data transmitted by this is analyzed and processed by a government algorithm; the algorithms thus learn that you are sick before you even realize it yourself. The same algorithms also know where you have been and who you have met. Of course, in this way the spread of an infection can be drastically contained, somewhat South Korea-style; the downside is that this could legitimize a terrifying surveillance system. Those who manage the algorithm know that the citizen clicks on the Fox News link instead of the CNN link, it is obviously possible to learn something about the political views and probably also about the personality of the citizen. This has already happened and today we have something more: if the person who manages the algorithm can monitor biometric data (blood pressure, bpm, saturation, etc.), it is instead possible to immediately understand what makes the citizen laugh, what makes him angry, etc. and it is crucial to remember that anger, joy, boredom, love (we could also add fear) are biological phenomena just like fever and cough. The same technology that identifies cough can also identify laughter; and if corporations along with governments start processing our biometric data en masse, they may know much more about us than we ourselves are persuaded to know. They can also not only predict our feelings but also manipulate them and sell us what they want, whether this is a product or a politician. Biometric monitoring, writes Harari, will transform computer hacking like Cambridge Analytics into something that belongs to the stone age of the history of technology.

Yuval Noah Harari

The transhumanist intellectual concludes this way: imagine North Korea in 2030, in which perhaps every citizen is forced to wear a biometric bracelet 24 hours a day. Listening to a speech by the great leader and the bracelet signals an angry reaction, you are doomed.

Obviously Harari is too smart not to understand that when we read these things we certainly don’t think that the risk is only for North Korea. Klaus Schwab often cites Harari together with Evgenij Morozov, another gray eminence of the transhuman process, who warns of the danger of a techno-totalitarian surveillance. What Morozov perceives as the greatest, definitive danger to our political systems and our freedoms is that the successful example of technology in monitoring and containing the pandemic could offer solutions to other problems such as inequality or climate change. After all, it is easier to influence individual behaviors through technological solutions than by addressing the answers to difficult political questions about the causes of these same crises that one intends to solve.

The bomb arrives, launched with extreme hurry

After this formidable, extraordinary and in what at a first and superficial glance would also seem intellectually honest paragraph on totalitarian risk, Schwab confronts us with a completely hasty conclusion, quoting an aphorism from Spinoza:

According to Schwab, therefore, if we are afraid we do not deserve analytical answers, but we are experiencing an inevitable process, something necessary to face any radical change. The eminent leader of the WEF therefore invites us not to put back the genius of technological surveillance, but to take advantage of the great benefits of technology, without sacrificing our values, our individual and collective freedoms. Very easy to say, much less easy to do, on the other hand it is very questionable whether the real intention of these elites is exactly that of avoiding this totalitarian risk, rather than riding it.

The specter of technological totalitarianism has been hastily cleared, in the last part of the essay Schwab returns to the technologies of personal data management. In fact, in his essay he goes on to rattle off how the combination of AI, IoT, sensors and wearable technologies, i.e. all the principals of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, will produce new and exciting prospects for our personal well-being. He will reconcile public health care systems with personalized health safeguard systems. Data flows, in many different fields, will converge within the monitoring of our changes, allowing a much more complete and absolute control over our state of health. In the post-covid era, precise information on our carbon footprint related to the environmental impact we produce, on our impact on biodiversity, on the toxicity of all the ingredients and products we consume, will generate significant progress in terms of individual well-being. In short, everything is carried out under the banner of our well-being, impossible to question: this will be the key to interpretation offered to the public by technocratic totalitarianism.

Now, let’s try to put together all the various innovations: Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, digital transition and big government on a global level with all the authoritarian declinations of national governments, undoubtedly lead us to this, and they are already doing it. The current world wide web will be transformed into a disseminated network to which we will be constantly and integrally connected. How is this going to happen? We will all become devices, signal emitters (MAC addresses), signals picked up by other devices and which will therefore cross-communicate all types of information data; starting with biometric data. How will they turn us into perpetually connected devices, grafted into this flow of data? First of all through our smartphones, with the various apps that we will have to download. But we could always throw away our smartphones, in a difficult plan B. Or we could just disconnect them…

What has been thought?

For many non-individualistic countries, it was thought of directly transforming the bodies of citizens into devices, since the body, among other things, produces and maintains itself thanks to electrical impulses as long as it is alive. No doubt about it, this dark side of the great reset is scary; however, we believe it is important to connect the concrete dots, without getting lost in conspiratorial conspiracies, also because there is very little hidden in these social projects. There are three fundamental nuclei to be taken into consideration:

• Big government and global governance
• Fourth Industrial Revolution
• Biopolitics, biopower and immunology

We will certainly deal with this last group in another post, always taking as a starting point some works at our disposal, which we recommend purchasing in the meantime. To be prophetic, the project of making the bodies become devices is quite frankly transhumanism, being a transfer, a process that completely remodels the very concept of human being, wanting to integrate artificial intelligence and corporeality. It is a paradigm shift on the ontological level, for which technologies will no longer be considered, as we have always been used to considering them, exogenous agents or mere tools used by man for his use, pleasure and free will, no: on the contrary , these technologies will interconnect and influence our lives, sometimes in a subtle way, sometimes in an obvious way. In this new phase of the era of our society, the boundary between the physical and digital world becomes intangible. This is the dark side of the Great Reset, the core of the risk, of the problem that we absolutely must address.

Ilaria Bifarini “THE GREAT RESET: From the pandemic to the new normal” [link] purchase (italian)
Klaus Schwab “The fourth industrial revolution” [link] purchase
Klaus Schwab “COVID-19: The Great Reset” [link] purchase